Donald Trump was an outsider who boldly stormed the citadel of Washington DC and won. He has promised real change, but his infrastructure plan appears to be just more of the same – privatizing public assets and delivering unearned profits to investors at the expense of the people. He needs to try something new; and for this he could look to Abraham Lincoln, whose bold solution was very similar to one now being considered in Europe: just print the money.
In Donald Trump’s victory speech after the presidential election, he vowed:
We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.
It sounds great; but as usual, the devil is in the details. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Donald Trump, Greenbacks, helicopter money, infrastructure financing | 55 Comments »
Student Debt Slavery: Bankrolling Financiers on the Backs of the Young
Higher education has been financialized, transformed from a public service into a lucrative cash cow for private investors.
The advantages of slavery by debt over “chattel” slavery – ownership of humans as a property right – were set out in an infamous document called the Hazard Circular, reportedly circulated by British banking interests among their American banking counterparts during the American Civil War. It read in part:
Slaves had to be housed, fed and cared for. “Free” men housed and fed themselves. Continue reading →
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: GI Bill, Greenbacks, public banking, student debt | 37 Comments »